The 2AM Photo

A Creative Writing Challenge: It’s 2AM and your phone has just buzzed you awake, filling the room in white-blue LED light. You have a message. It’s a photo. No words, no explanation. Just a photo. Tell us all about it. And what happens next…

Emmy sleepily reached for her cell phone. It was flashing its LED light, and buzzing on the nightstand.  The display showed “You have a new message”, and the time it arrived – 2:00AM. No one she knew would send a text this late. Unless it was an emergency.

Now wide awake, she took her phone from the nightstand and displayed the message. There was no subject line, nor were there words – just an image.

The photo took her breath away, and filled her soul with a deep sadness. She stared at it, confused. Emmy had not seen the photo before, but remembered that day clearly. She and Jeff were in the National Forest, having a picnic lunch. Whoever took the picture must have had one heck of a zoom lens, Emmy thought.  It was the last time she saw Jeff. The tears that were brimming in her eyes, now spilled down her cheeks.
The deep pain rushed back to her, like a vengeful boomerang.

She had no idea who could have taken this photo.  And why would they send it to her now?

Emmy hit the “Reply” button and got an error message instead of the senders email address.

“Dammit!!” she swore loudly. Tracking down this person will not be easy.

– to be continued…